i scarce had strength to speak
the faint beam of hope was diminishing
a tear has found its way down my cheek
as every one of my limbs trembled

at times i would rise up
only to fall down in fear
alone in a prison
of inhumanity and tears

my mother had told me
"grow in grace"
yet how can i forgive the ones
that suffers our fellow slaves?

but in the darkness
i find my comfort and relief
in the songs
that my mother had sung to me

from the sorrows deep within our hearts
the tales of woe
a testimony against slavery
can be found in every tone

the lyrics drowned my sorrow
they were tones of loud, long, and deep;
The hearing of those wild notes
lit an ember of hope in me

my soul was set on fire
oh, if only i were free
oh, if only i could fly away
to the land of deliverance

My long-crushed spirit rose,
cowardice departed,
bold defiance took its place;

it was from this moment on
that i have decided
i shall no longer be
someone else's slave

I found myself
hunting the truth
but finding the
unexpected.
I found what my
senses
couldn't show me.
I found the truth
that relays silently,
in the unknown.

-Leon Castillo

A star-born blanket was our only covering
Below was the cascading undergrowth of thin green rigid sprouts
Surrounded by an environment morphed by the imagination
And with the feral gleam of his eye he asked....
Would you mind if we got lost?

Snakes she yelled
Heights he said quietly
Closed spaces another added

But...

...One said love
Love because..
Because because
Once you love someone
They have a certain power over you

They begin to over fill your cup
Create faster nerve impulses
Makes you listen to love songs twice

But...
...once they leave

Your cup is empty and you lost appeite
You begin to feel numb yet feel pain
You switch the audio off

You die while breathing

And that's why love was her greatest fear

We lose ourselves in poetry,
We find ourselves here too.





❤

She found peace
Embraced in his arms.

She told him the universe
So that the moon could hear her smile.

As they intertwined their fingers
Under the moonlight
It felt like the world
Was coveting them forever.

She was stardust
Falling to quickly
For a boy she cherished
Longing in her heart.

He was the sea
Reflecting her love
Unending and full
Yearning from the start.

They never left each other
Through the troubles life threw
For they knew that they
Were worth the billions of lightyears away.

Before they divided
Into separate ways
They watched the sunset bud
Upon the skies haze.

On the final day
The stars kissed the sea
Wishing goodbye.

They would meet up again
Someway.

*******, Evangeline
I hated you in the seventh grade
When you were pushed on me at school
And broke my rib,
As I badmouthed you on the monkeyswings.

But quickly I learned
Not from mom or sister
That to be a man is different than
Hollywood and Disneyland
Nothing Loves, Actually; Forever calls—

Very quickly

It seems

That I go from adorable to expendable

Serendipitously,
With a bit of mandated mail
And affairs with Eros’ bureaus of State

Back then I played with chitinous bugs
Baiting them fluffy placentas
of budding trees
And stalked them back to their cave
Before I knew my felonies

But I was a baby,
A child—I never could have known what it means.

But of course I do,
I’ve seen
the running of the bulls
The utterance of men
They are angry and gouge *******
with cold vicegrips around their ******
And are kicked
Mercilessly
Spurned to wrathful affectation
To be murdered in the evening
With rapturous spectation

“But they are bulls!”

Of course they are
"These feelings are only natural!"

No man can equate
With the pleasurable temptations of the state

Not bird or bug or steer or doe

The only Hierarchy permissible
Is of the animals
And of that we hate

I don’t see you woeing
About that steak on your plate.
Or the Glue in the soles of your shoes.

Stroll a bit
Sniff the trees
Whiff the *******
When it’s in the feed

He runs in circles shouting, chanting
“Oye, Oye, Aye Piche Cabrone!”
As the solo mothers cut his lengua
for the starving Ninos
In an apartment complex
off Oxenhoof Lane

Where

Papi got iced
By I.C.E or the like
And the kiddies will never know what it means.

You’ll never know what it means
To be a bull
Muster your might for this—demand with laughter you die
I am an ant in the ever-washed hive
Of sterile kin who have no lives
They give for their queen or infectious despot with wings

Despite all the kindness they've given me,
I am not ready to be meat for the feet.

In every blade of grass I've faith
That no bird or sin will ****** me from my place
And into the sky or the unsatiated mouth of the various
Disunified highs

For now I share the toil and vitriolic
Callous
Jowls of those who hate themselves
More than me
And try to smile and bring food for the queen

But deep inside
I am an ant
And that is all you will ever see.

Will I gain a leverage,
              but be below your gaze,


How can something so levitated
              flow like a river below
  

my feet, yet move me in so many ways.


Your like the wind, always inhaling you
                                               inwards..

But always feeling you caress my face.



Your an enigma of my life, felt within every fibre,
                         but with ever expansion of self


you escape me..